By Mark Inglett
Manager Strategic Communications, United States Post Service
To save the Postal Service, or not save it. That’s the crisis – and the question – the Postal Service faced that led to the creation of its 10-year Delivering for America plan in March of 2021. In the three years since, our organization has been working to recover from operational and financial catastrophe. In the summer of 2020, we had incurred $137 billion in losses and our organization was going to run out of cash in 60 days.
We had 30-year-old vehicles and had deferred over $20 billion in maintenance for our infrastructure, which led to shameful workplaces. Even more shocking, there was no plan to deal with this dire situation and that would create a self-sustaining, reliable Postal Service that could effectively serve Americans for years to come.
That is why our organization launched the Delivering for America plan – a $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade and enhance the Postal Service’s processing, distribution, and transportation network. As a part of this plan, we are proposing significant updates to our facility here in North Platte. As the Postal Service continues to review its local operations, I want to lay out the facts of what we are doing:
First, we are not closing the North Platte Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC). We will convert it into a Local Processing Center (LPC) and the Postal Service intends on investing between $4 million and $6 million into it. These investments include $2.4 million for a brand-new sorting machine that will help improve delivery services and $2 million for modernization efforts and deferred maintenance.
Second, the Postal Services will not be laying off any career employees as a part of this review. Our efforts will improve the workplace by providing our employees with new amenities – like updated lighting, renovated bathrooms, and breakrooms. We are also providing more opportunities for non-career employees to become career employees – and in the last three years – more than 165,000 pre career employees have converted to career. If any changes ultimately affect our pre-career workforce in the facility, that is the very nature of a flexible workforce category. In addition, as part of its strategy, the Postal Service is enhancing package processing and shipping capacity, which may result in increased plant activity and the need for additional support in the future.
Third and finally, our modernization efforts will have no effect on services here in North Platte. Our initial review found that converting the North Platte facility into an LPC would allow mail and packages to move more seamlessly through our network thereby enhancing services to residents and businesses. Under this plan, local mail would not be affected. The vast majority of local mail travels out of state, and local-to-local mail will stay within the current 2–3-day delivery standard. It is also important to note that Business mail entry, Post Office, station, and branch retail services are not expected to change, and delivery services will be unaffected because of this review.
The Postal Service remains committed to the transparency we have applied throughout the network modernization process. If you are interested in reading more about the investments we are making in our North Platte facility, click https://about.usps.com/what/strategic-plans/mpfr/documents/initial-findings-north-platte-ne-03-19-2024.rtf